“I called that lawyer your friend recommended. Thank you so much. I have an appointment early next week.” He swallowed hard and clenched his jaw. “That’s after the current childcare contract ends, but I wondered if maybe you were still available? I mean, just for a few hours. I don’t even know if you do that, or if it’s only full-time nanny work.”
My handed landed on his arm to still his rambling. I hadn’t planned to reach out, but my subconscious obviously thought touching him was a good idea. “I’d be happy to help, Gil.”
He nodded and met my eyes again. “Thank you.”
I wanted to tell him that I was there for him, for whatever he needed, but that would blow whatever propriety we clung to away completely. The memory of him curled against my chest, my arms around him, made me want more. He faced a horrible thing that no loving parent should ever face, and I wanted to offer whatever help and comfort I could. I wanted to offer him a lot more than that, but there were more important things than my growing attraction to this sweet, hard-working, handsome man.
Chapter 6
Gilbert
The attorney Sam recommended worked out of his big, old Victorian house on the outskirts of town. He welcomed me into his spacious office with a smile, kissed his partner, a lovely auburn-haired man in a flowing, emerald green tunic, goodbye, and settled in a chair across from the loveseat where I sat. The room held several high bookshelves full of books and knick-knacks and three huge aquariums where colorful fish swam.
“Thank you for seeing me so soon.” Although a huge wooden desk and impressive leather chair sat at the far end of the room, the seats he chose for us helped to set my mind at ease. Giovanni wore neat black slacks and a button down with a subtle gray stripe – very professional – but offered a warm smile.
“I’m glad I had an opening. What you told me on the phone made this sound quite urgent. Would you like coffee, tea, juice, or water before we start?”
I shook my head. If I tried to drink something, I run the risk of throwing up all over the dark blue upholstery. “No thanks. I’m fine.” The dark roiling fear I’d tried to suppress ever since getting that text from Paige threatened to erupt. “Well, not fine. Really far from fine actually.”
Giovanni leaned back and picked up a notebook and pen from the side table. “Start at the beginning. The more I know about your situation, the easier it is to determine what kind of help I can provide.”
I’d only talked to an attorney once before when I started my business, but that was for paperwork and tax purposes. Then, I knew exactly what I had to do. There were some nerves, sure, but not abject terror and the threat of a loss I could never recover from.
I sucked in a deep, shaky breath and began. “My daughter, Evelyn, is ten months old. Her mother, Paige Harris, left the hospital a day after giving birth and disappeared. We’d been together up to that point, lived together, although our relationship had gotten a bit less…” I shrugged. The attorney didn’t need to know the intricacies of our struggling relationship.
“Anyway, she left, and I’ve been raising Evie ever since. I tried to contact Paige frequently in the beginning, but nothing. The day I called you, I got a text from her.” I slipped my phone out of my pocket, tapped to the message, and handed it to Giovanni.
He leaned forward and read, “I don’t think Evie is yours. I want her back,” before meeting my gaze again. “Was paternity ever in doubt before this?”
I’d read those words so many times since the text arrived, and the visceral reaction to hearing them hadn’t diminished one bit. It took a moment before I could open my mouth again without the risk of sobbing.
Memories of the men Paige invited to our bed flickered through my mind. Not all of them had sex with her, and we’d always used condoms, but things happened. Could I trust that she never slept with someone else I didn’t know about? I shook my head. I’d be a fool to believe that. “I never thought about it before this, but it’s possible I’m not…”
Something heavy and hot lodged in my throat, and I tried to swallow. “I think… I think I could use that water now. I’m sorry.”
Without a word, Giovanni fetched a small bottle of water from a mini fridge behind the desk on the far side of the room. He handed it to me and sat back down. “Unfortunately, that’s always a chance. The quickest way forward is a paternity test. She hasn’t filed any paperwork or had an attorney contact you yet, right?”
I shook my head. “No, just that one text and the phone calls.”
“Tell me about them.”
The horrible, angry words Paige snapped and shouted at me over the phone that day after the text jumbled into a dark mess. I stared down at my hands as I tried to remember exactly what she said. “She said Evie’s not mine and that I had no right to her. She wanted me to meet her outside a restaurant in the city and hand her over. Just like that.”
Giovanni’s shocked expression made me feel more at ease. If the attorney got so emotionally affected by her callousness, I could trust him to fight for me. For us. “And you refused. What did she say then? Did she mention an attorney?”
“Of course I refused.” I barely recognized the growl in my own voice. “She cursed at me and called me an idiot. Did I reallythink I was the only man she was with? She…” Paige had said quite a few things about my lack of ability to satisfy her, but I wasn’t about to share those with my lawyer. Hurting me was her only goal, tearing me down so I’d do what she said just like so many times during our relationship.
“I told her not to contact me again, that everything has to go through official channels, but I can’t sit around hoping she won’t try something. I can’t have this hanging over my head.” I tipped the bottle up and took a long sip. The water wet my mouth but did little to wash away the fear and anger choking me. “I can’t lose my daughter.”
By the time the hour-long appointment ended, Giovanni’s kindness and proactive plan helped ease some of my fear. He spoke plainly but tried to put a positive spin on things. If Evie wasn’t biologically mine, the only option would involve proving Paige unfit for custody. Shared custody due to parental bonding might be an option. My name was on the birth certificate, and that carried a lot of legal weight.
The first step was proving paternity. At the same time, he would prepare paperwork for a legal custody hearing. Immediate post-natal abandonment would require considerable effort to overcome, he said. I left our first meeting feeling rung out and refilled with a weird blend of horror and hope swirling through me.
Somehow, I managed to drive back to my apartment without crying again. My eyes burned, and my throat still hurt from holding in my emotions in front of the attorney. I pulled into my parking spot and sat with my hands on the wheel for a long moment.
Feelings washed through me, whirling like the cold winter wind outside and freezing me to my core. Fear. Sorrow. Regret. Anger. I took a deep breath and forced my fingers to relax. Giovanni knew what he was doing. I had to know the truthbefore anything else. Then I would fight with everything in me to keep Evie in my life. I blew out another gust of air, foggy now in the cold confines of my car, and opened the door.
Sam looked up from his seat at the kitchen table when I came in. The faint glow of his laptop screen shone on his freckled cheeks and his pretty eyes. “I just put Evie down for her nap. She might not be asleep yet if you want to say hi.”
